‘One minute out of a lifetime:’ Kiam Moriya will turn 12 on 12/12/2012, at 12:12 p.m.

Kiam Moriya is just one of thousands of people in the United States who will turn 12 on Wednesday — 12/12/12.

But Kiam, who loves BMX bike racing, TaeKwonDo and “just about anything with wheels or blades,” according to his mother, has a distinction few of the others share. Kiam was born at 12:12 p.m., on December 12, 2000.

He says his friends are skeptical when he tells them about the freakish alignment of 12s.

“Most of them didn’t believe me,” Kiam said.

But he has the facts on his side, as backed up by his New York state birth certificate.

There’s even another 12 in the mix because of his parent’s ties to Japan. Kiam’s father, Kazuo Moriya, was born in Tokyo. His mother, Tamara Moriya, is executive director of the Japan-America Society of Alabama.

Tamara Moriya said Japanese people count the years by the number of years since the beginning of the reigning emperor. The year 2000 happened to be the 12th year of the reign of the current emperor, whose posthumous name will be Heisei. So the year 2000 was “Heisei 12.”